18.2822, Diss: Syntax: Sprouse: 'A Program for Experimental Syntax'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-18-2822. Fri Sep 28 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.2822, Diss: Syntax: Sprouse: 'A Program for Experimental Syntax'

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1)
Date: 27-Sep-2007
From: Jon Sprouse < jsprouse at uci.edu >
Subject: A Program for Experimental Syntax

 

	
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Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:18:41
From: Jon Sprouse [jsprouse at uci.edu]
Subject: A Program for Experimental Syntax
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Institution: University of Maryland 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2007 

Author: Jon Sprouse

Dissertation Title: A Program for Experimental Syntax 

Dissertation URL:  http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jsprouse/cv/

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax


Dissertation Director(s):
Howard Lasnik

Dissertation Abstract:

There has always been interest in the methodology of acceptability judgment
collection, and in particular the reliability of the results. The past
several years have seen an increase in the number of studies employing
formal experimental techniques, or experimental syntax, to refine the data
underlying syntactic theories. This dissertation argues that experimental
syntax has the potential to be more than just a methodological footnote to
theoretical syntax: experimental syntax can be used to investigate the
relationship between acceptability judgments and the nature of grammatical
knowledge.

Each chapter applies the tools of experimental syntax to a claim about the
nature of grammatical knowledge that is based upon acceptability judgments.
The claims include: that grammatical knowledge is gradient, that
grammatical knowledge is sensitive to context, that the stability or
instability of acceptability reflects underlying differences in the form of
grammatical knowledge, that processing effects affect acceptability, and
that acceptability effects have little to contribute to theories of the
nature of dependency forming operations.

Using constraints on wh-movement as an empirical basis of the research, the
results of these studies suggest that experimental syntax can lead to new
insights into the nature of gramamtical knowledge and its relationship with
acceptability. 





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